Scorching Yanks win 5th in row
NEW YORK — The Yankees were a tripleheader of hot on Saturday.
First was the temperature: 94 degrees at game time, the highest for New York this season.
Next was the offense, which torched Colorado pitching for the second straight day and romped over the Rockies 115 to extend the Yankees’ winning streak to five.
And then came tempers: Luke Voit got hit on the chin by Chad Bettis in the fourth inning and Austin Romine was buzzed by a pair of upandin pitches from Jairo Diaz in the eighth.
“That was some dangerous stuff going on up by the face,” Romine said.
New York went ahead when Aaron Judge doubled in a run on Anthony Senzatela’s 10th pitch, Edwin Encarnacion chased the 24yearold righthander with a tworun double in a fiverun second and the Yankees gave Masahiro Tanaka a 90 lead by the fourth.
Encarnacion added an RBI double in the seventh as the Yankees reached double digits in runs for the 13th time this year. He has 21 RBIs in 24 games since Yankees acquired him from Seattle.
DJ LeMahieu raised his ALleading average to .334 with three hits, giving him five in two games against his former team.
“It’s a little weird,” said LeMahieu, who spent his first eight big league seasons with the Rockies. “I’ll be excited not to play them anymore.”
New York began the day with a ninegame AL East lead, its largest in seven years, and increased its bestinthemajors record to 6433. The Yankees are 1401 in
their last 15 home series and are on their fifth winning streak of five games or more.
Tanaka said the heat reminded him of steamy summer games in Japan.
“It was fine when we were walking on the grass, but as soon as you got to the plate it was like a cone of heat. It was awful,” Romine said. “It was a struggle out there. It was really hot — probably one of the more hot games I’ve ever caught.”
Players in New York’s dugout were steamed over the inside pitches.
“I don’t think there was intent, but sometimes intent doesn’t matter,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Throw the ball over the plate.”
Colorado has lost six straight and 13 of 15 while getting outscored 12764.
“I think there’s frustration for sure,” said Nolan Arenado, who hit a threerun homer and left in the eighth with a cramp in his right leg. “Just long innings, so that it makes it even hotter. But as the game went on, we just got used to it.”
The Rockies resembled a mirage of a big league team, making two errors plus key mental mistakes.
“We are not playing the defense we are accustomed to,” manager Bud Black said.
Left fielder Ramiel Tapia’s failure to throw the ball to the infield led to havoc in a 34minute bottom of the second, and no one covered second as Romine, a slowfooted catcher, swiped a base for just the fourth time in his big league career.
“I’ve been working on the oneayear thing,” Romine said. “I told someone I was in the oneandone club, the illustrious oneandone club.”
Voit was hit in the fourth by a 91 mph pitch from Bettis that glanced off his left shoulder and struck the left side of his face, drawing blood. Voit scored on Gleyber Torres’ tworun single, then returned to the clubhouse and was replaced. The Yankees said tests indicated he did not have a concussion and Boone thought Voit would be available for Sunday’s series finale, when New York tries for its ninth series sweep.